BMW 535i Turbo
I am a very big fan of the classic BMW E34. This site has information on my 1988 BMW 535i converted to a turbocharged monster. The car sits on genuine Alpina 17" rims measuring a big 9.5" on the rear and 8.5" on front. It has Zender sideskirts and a front clip from Europe hiding a massive custom intercooler. Suspension is full Bilstein with lowered springs and front brakes are massive 850i rotors clamped by Brembo 4 piston callipers from a Porsche 928S4. As fas as speed and performance goes, I have never been in anything that throws you forward like this car does in 3rd gear when the boost rolls on, and I have had some pretty fast cars in the past. This car can break away some very sticky fat rear tires in 3rd gear.
My goal with this car is to have an ultimate GT while maintaining the qualities of the E34. The car was already converted to a turbo some years ago as explained in the Zoom magazine article. When I bought it in 2006, I decided to upgrade / make good a number of problem areas as described in the links below.
Pre upgrade performance:
A dyno pull before starting the upgrade work in the links above is shown here, 349rwkw is 470rwhp at 21psi. This is on a dynodynamics dyno in shootout mode so can be considered as conservative as you can get (the dynodynamics is called the 'heartbreaker' for a reason!). On other dyno's it would show a significantly more. Basically, the motor makes around 600-650hp depending on how you apply driveline losses to rear wheel power. As you can see, the tune on the Haltech is not that bad at the fat end but the AFR is all over the place at the light end. AFR plots do not convey drivability either, which I must admit was crap with the Haltech.
The boost curve can be seen starting at 22psi and falling to 21psi.
The Thumbnail above is some processing of the HP data from the dyno pull showing torque output, which is well into the 500ft.lb at the rear wheels or over 600ft.lb at the motor at around 4,000rpm - some serious grunt! Horsepower at the motor is close to 600bhp at below 6000rpm, after which it falls off. This is probably due to the relatively small GT30R turbo and 2 valve head. Turbo uses a 1.06 A/R turbine housing and .7 A/R compressor housing. It could really use a GT35 for big top end power but who needs more power that this?
Post upgrade performance:
Current tune with the modifications detailed in the links above
sees 24psi to the red line with boost controlled by Autronic, with switchable
boost maps. Autronic SM4 and R500 CDI see to management and ignition duty and it
now runs the enhanced IC outlet end tank and revised intake manifold design
using a massive single throttle body, as described in the links above. AFRs are
superbly controlled with the Autronic and drivability is significantly improved,
as well as control over fans, A/C etc.
The Traction control is superb and when set up properly with
Launch, the car will get off the line using lunch, hit a predetermined speed and
then start being controlled with traction. This allows proper slippage during
take off and then the proper amount of slippage as the speed builds. I do not
use launch on the street and have only done it enough times to set the system up
properly.
I would expect to see no less than 500rwhp on the dynodynamics
now.
sees 24psi to the red line with boost controlled by Autronic, with switchable
boost maps. Autronic SM4 and R500 CDI see to management and ignition duty and it
now runs the enhanced IC outlet end tank and revised intake manifold design
using a massive single throttle body, as described in the links above. AFRs are
superbly controlled with the Autronic and drivability is significantly improved,
as well as control over fans, A/C etc.
The Traction control is superb and when set up properly with
Launch, the car will get off the line using lunch, hit a predetermined speed and
then start being controlled with traction. This allows proper slippage during
take off and then the proper amount of slippage as the speed builds. I do not
use launch on the street and have only done it enough times to set the system up
properly.
I would expect to see no less than 500rwhp on the dynodynamics
now.
Update 2009-2013:
since owning the car i have been on an ongoing issue trying to sort out the clutch setup, long story short i have re-made the hydraulic piston roughly 5mm shorter than the original one as it was putting a little pressure on the clutch fingers. this little bit of pressure was just enough to make it slip on rare occasions depending on how you would drop the clutch. the downside now is that it dosen't touch the clutch fingers at all now which now makes the clutch a bit noisier, when ever i pull the gearbox off again i might make the shim behind the piston a millimetre or two thicker to reduce the noise
the ford falcon clutch cover was an OK setup, it handled the power well, but it made the clutch feel realy heavy. i have since decided to upgrade to a subaru WRX clutch cover for pure efficency and power upgradeability. the old ford cover put 800kg of clamping force on the clutch, good for roughly 500rwhp. the new subaru one put 1400kg of clamping pressure on the clutch, now this clutch can probably handle closer to 700rwhp. and the "off the shelf clutches" options for GOOD subaru clutches is much greater being a 230mm diameter clucth (old one was 240mm)
also while it was off i have also signifintaly upgraded the amount of clutch straps from 1 to 3 thanks to rx automotive's suggestions as they were breaking them on hard launches in their race cars
also while it was off i have also signifintaly upgraded the amount of clutch straps from 1 to 3 thanks to rx automotive's suggestions as they were breaking them on hard launches in their race cars
i have had to do a full head rebuild recently as once again this car had broken its weak factory rockers this time the camshaft had snapped aswell. so this time no expense was spared in this head rebuild. the boys from Pure Performance Motorsport had made me a custom set of billet rocker arms with porche adjusters combined with rocker stops will make sure that this will never happen again. while i was in there i went with all new ARP studs, valve guides and seals. i also bought some new stainless steal 1mm oversized valves and opened up the inlets some more combined with a 5 angle valve job. to top it off it now has stiffer valve springs and Titanium spring retainers. the head had previously been heavily ported so just a quick clean up was needed
while this work on the head was being carried out i decided to upgrade the existing 30/40 turbo to make use of the potential. i had MR Turbo replace the whole internals with a new garret 35/40 and simpily machine the existing housings to suit
to rectify the broken cam shaft i had wade camshafts grind me up a Alpina B10.5 camshaft from a new blank billet, but after talking with Paul Burke (an M30 specialist from the states) he recomended i try a more agressive turbo specific camshaft that would put more of the power further into the rev range to compliment my headwork. a camshaft was ordered and installed, not before realising that the oil spray bar now cam into contact with the rockers due to the higher lift, custom banjo bolts were made and fitted and the rocker cover relived to suit.
after all that work it took me a while to finaly get it tuned. the first session on the dyno it made 451.3RWHP on a Dyno Dynamics dyno on only 18Psi so far more efficent than it used to be, it still needs to have the camshaft dialled in a little more before we can take this further towards 24psi, i expect an easy 600rwhp on pump fuel, more on E85!
i would like to thank the previous owner for the majority of information on this website, he created the original website and i have simply added information onto it